Happenstance
by wonderstance
Summary: But the truth is, I know you're alive. Yoko is here, they'll cry. And after all this time, I never stopped searching for you.
1. Stars Collapse

**Happenstance**

* * *

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"Feel deep pity for the man who is condemned to the loneliness of being remarkable."  
_Cry, the Beloved Country  
_.

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_Chapter 1_:  
Stars Collapse

* * *

Kurama watched the sky bleed. The Makai hadn't changed much since he last stepped foot here.

The place still had the same archaic stench, the same red sky, and the same constant crackle of a lightning storm overhead. Kurama couldn't say he missed it all too much, but he would be lying if he didn't at least admit that he felt nostalgic.

If it weren't for his longing to return to the human world to see his mother, he might've even considered an educational sabbatical here for a year or two.

From high up in the black oak tree he sat in, he stared far down the horizon.

Agreeing to be Yomi's right hand man wouldn't be the kind of arrangement that would last long. Kurama knew Yomi still harbored ill intentions against him; and there were only so many times they could act agreeable until one of them snapped.

Yoko stirred each time they were forced to see one another. The number of their encounters would be indefinite from here on out and Kurama's exploration of the Makai was but a mere excuse to get out from the suffocating confines of Yomi's territory.

What was that stupid cliché to keep your _friends close_, and enemies closer?

But he wasn't strong enough right now. After all this training, he taught himself how to change into Yoko on a whim, but Yomi was far more powerful. A high S-class demon, even with his blindness.

In the end, clichés and trite sayings only made sense when Kurama had the upper hand. He would have to depend on his wits for the time being.

He breathed deep and tugged off a single withered black leaf from the trunk of the tree he was leaning on. He crushed it in his palm and blew away the black specks from the palm of his hands.

On a whim, he spared a glance down below.

A girl.

She had short, red hair barely reaching her shoulders, and eyes blacker than black.

Had it not been for her strange oriental garb—a traditional qipao painted black with the sleeves sown in gold with a crosshatch insignia of a snake on her shoulder, he surely would've mistaken her for an average human girl.

He recognized her garb; and he knew it wasn't the kind of dress any human would ever wear. It was something symbolic. The _snake_. He knew it must've meant something; he'd seen it once before. He wracked his mind but he couldn't quite put a finger on it.

She looked alarmed—her brows were wrinkled and she stared intently at him with wide eyes.

Kurama was shocked he hadn't sensed her, but he supposed that it was generally the small, unremarkable apparitions that were ultimately the most dangerous.

Although he had to say, he did notice a distinct smell in the air but before he could fixate on her scent properly, he noticed a black smudge on her forehead.

It was from the black leaf he had just crumpled up in his hand earlier before.

It must've fallen on her head.

But she didn't seem to mind as she opened her mouth to say, "You're…" and her mouth closed while her sentence trailed off slowly into silence.

Before Kurama had to chance to answer, she vanished.

He arched a brow and leaned back against the trunk of the tree, feeling her energy disappear into the distance. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared off ahead at the horizon.

She was probably some apparition who recognized his demon energy. _Yoko is here, they cry_. A

nd somewhere deep inside him, he felt his stomach churn from the excitement. His reputation preceded him in almost every way.

Maybe it was the ego thing he had going on. The Makai certainly had a tendency of bringing out his untamable side.

Suddenly, she reappeared. She was crouched in front of him, eyes opened wide with a look of the perpetually _curious_.

Kurama blinked. She wasn't particularly fast; in fact, she was more hesitant and less intuitive than he would've counted on. Her scent had been departing the area when she vanished, but she had turned back and returned in almost an instant.

From this, he could surmise that her ability to be decisive wasn't particularly powerful. He knew he should've been more cautious around an unknown apparition but he didn't sense any particular hostility from her.

"You smell like a human," she stated all-knowingly, scratching the side of her cheek where her dimple was.

Kurama didn't mean to be prompt, but he had to ask, "Who are you?"

"My name's Kira," she replied, furrowing her brows in slight agitation, "but from that dumb look on your face, I'm guessing you don't know who I am."

"If we're being honest here, I don't," he told her.

But he couldn't shake the familiarity of her scent—a cataclysm of rain dew and a thin layer of sweat.

On paper, the combination sounded pretty undesirable but it fused in a way that made sense for Kurama.

But he couldn't remove his gaze from the insignia on her shoulder. His thoughts were shrouded in nostalgia but there was nothing concrete coming to mind, just a wave of familiarity shadowed in darkness.

"Well, that's okay. I suppose my reputation doesn't stretch as far as yours," she admitted halfheartedly, "_Yoko_. Do you mind if I call you that?"

"Actually, it's _Kurama_," he corrected her with a hint of indifference; and out of curiosity, he went on, "but if you don't mind me asking—have we met?"

"Kurama? That's won't do you any good. It's not the kind of name that carries much weight by itself, _if we're being honest here_," she said, and he couldn't miss the particular note of disdain in her tone as she stole his words from earlier on, "but maybe. I couldn't really tell you. My memory isn't much better than yours," and here, she knocked on her noggin with her knuckles, sticking out her tongue, "but I was a fan of yours, a long time ago. Me and probably half of the population in the Makai."

"And the other half?" Kurama asked, slightly amused.

"Wanted you dead," she said, with a big smile on her face.

"I guess that makes me lucky," Kurama tried to suppress the smile on his face.

"Guess it does," she told him, "but I'm not here just to champion your return."

Kira winked, "To be honest, I didn't really recognize you up in that tree; but the thing about an aura is it doesn't really change no matter what kind of vessel you're in—even it's a vessel that belongs to a human," and—there was a pause before she continued, "you've gotten a lot weaker, from what I can see. To be honest, I think I would be able to take you in a match right now. No contest. So tell me—what ever happened to the big, _bad_ Yoko Kurama?"

"Your big talk doesn't intimidate me. It's unwise underestimate someone you've hardly gotten to know," Kurama replied apathetically, and it was here where he decided to finally expose his energy and let it seep slowly into the surrounding air.

The action was completely uncharacteristic of him, but there was just something about being in the Makai that really upped the ante when it came to bragging. Besides, he couldn't let this girl take all the credit. Pride and self-esteem meant more in the Demon World than the Human World—and he couldn't let Yoko down.

She looked relatively unimpressed and didn't even flinch; but she still wore a half-smile on her face like he was doing this to amuse her or something, "Oh. _Wow_. Your demon energy feels really weird."

A brief moment of silence passed between them. Yoko stirred deep inside him and Kurama knew she was attempting to instigate some kind of fight but he knew he was even worse off by rewarding her for her mockery by responding and pulling out his proverbial guns.

The more he understood Yoko, the more he would have to hide him away in the Human World.

Kira smiled sadly, "From what I can feel, you must be really lonely, huh?"

She was hitting too close to home.

More than anyone else, Kurama had a tendency to distance himself from people, even the people closest to him—(his mother, and a long time ago, _Maya_).

It wasn't so much his nature for solitude but more of a deep obligation he felt to carry on with his human characteristics by burying his demon features. If he wanted to reside outside the Makai, then he had to mask himself.

Yoko was, in some way, his true form, and his soul melded with Shuichi's long ago—so Yoko had to respect Shuichi's decision. He owed Shuichi this much.

Their relationship was give and take—but more often than not, Shuichi felt as if he were taking more than he could bargain for. Compromising to remain in the human realm only increased the insurmountable loneliness he felt.

When Yoko was truly alive, once upon a time, he had his group of loyal apparitions and demons working to the bone for him. He had his right hand man—_Yomi_. He had a constant haze of company and unbending loyalty, and there was ultimately no need for him to hide away.

They were all working under the same ideal. They wanted power. And they all operated under the same mantra—to steal, to loot, and to desecrate. They were the kind of company who would die for him on a whim.

But even then, they didn't truly understand him; they only respected him, trusted him, and believed in him. They couldn't see into the depths of his despair. They could only see the strong front he put on.

They only saw whatever Yoko wanted them to see.

The wind swept through and her hair lifted slightly in the breeze. Kira brushed a lock behind her ear and smiled. Her energy was seeping deep into the air, overshadowing the indigo blues of his own aura.

Her energy was warm and nurturing—shades of reds and deep oranges. It resembled the kind of aura a mother would have. He wouldn't have guessed from the way Kira looked; after all, she took on a youthful appearance—the kind of girl who lived nimbly on her toes.

But if she were being honest, and if she did truly was a fan, then she must've been old. In the Makai, and Kurama should've known this better than anyone, the physical features apparitions carried were usually the most deceiving features.

_A mid-S-class demon_, Yoko stirred somewhere deep inside him. She was powerful, but not in the traditional sense. She didn't carry the weight of strength like Yusuke or the agility of Hiei; rather, her aura was lithe and airy.

She was _playful_. It was the kind of aura that resembled Jin's carefreeness. If Kurama became Yoko, he knew he could more than overpower her.

She could put on a strong front, but he knew better than anyone else that her conceitedness would get the best of her in the long run. That was the truth with most demons.

Even Yoko had his pride, but he knew how to wean it.

"_Well_," she said, after the silence stretched too long to be comfortable, "I have to get going. But maybe we'll see each other again some time."

"Yes, well," Kurama couldn't quite find the right words, "perhaps we will."

Kira stood up and he could hear her joints crack. She didn't seem too fazed, as she stretched her arms into the air, "I promise you I mean well. I just think it's strange because you're able to gauge your own strength but you can't see how lonely your own aura is. That means your strength will have limits in the long run."

"How presumptive," he replied, "your observations are duly noted."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm just pointing something out that might save your life some day."

_Point_. Kurama understood, but told her, "You may think you understand me, but strength is not my ultimate ambition."

"It's never anybody's _real_ ambition," she half-laughed, "but because you're a demon, it's always going to be a part of you. So you should learn to understand and feed your energy before it eats you from the inside out."

She saluted him with two fingers and flashed him a smile before she vanished completely.

Kurama could see her in the distance, hopping from tree to tree until she became a black speck near the horizon.

* * *

"Kira—the orphan girl?" Hiei arched a brow, "What business do you have with her?"

The forest stood unnervingly still. Kurama was treading deep within Mukuro's territory, but he had to admit that it was reassuring to see a familiar face. The last he'd seen Hiei was after he'd received a message from Yomi in the Human World.

"No business really," Kurama replied, "we had a brief encounter yesterday. She's an orphan, you say?"

"_Was_," Hiei said, "she operates under Raizen. She's his errand girl."

Such irony. She certainly never struck Kurama as a simple errand girl with her big talk.

"They say she was indebted to him," Hiei continued, "apparently, she does his dirty work, and has been doing it for a while. I couldn't possibly tell you what kind of debt she owed him, but she policed Yomi's territory as reconnaissance, and killed many demons. There are rumors that at some point, she was killing thousands a day. To be frank I couldn't possibly give a shit. Numbers don't mean anything to me. She's known in the Makai as an idiot who cares only about status."

"Some don't subsist on the desire for power alone," Kurama pointed out. Although, it was ironic that someone who cared so much about "status" was working as an errand girl. But he decided not to point this out.

Hiei sneered, "That may suit a human chump—but this is the Makai. That kind of thinking will get you killed. One day she'll wind up with a knife in her back and by the time she sees it, she'll already have bled out on the floor."

"How scathing," Kurama noted with a touch of disdain, "I'm assuming you've met her before."

Hiei didn't answer, but Kurama already knew. There was something to be said about being someone else's indentured servant. She had an ugly, _sad_ reputation, and it would be the kind of reputation that only grew uglier and sadder over time.

He thought about what she had said earlier about his own loneliness and wondered if she was, perhaps, just as lonely as he was. Like most demons in the Makai, she was an orphan. Was she working for Raizen as a means to escape her own isolation?

Some learned to live on their own as orphans, and those were usually the demons driven to madness in their despair.

It was difficult for Hiei to grasp his concept because he was an exception in the Makai. He was born with both talent and ambition. He thrived in solitude. And despair was the only thing that drove his ambition ablaze.

"She's an idiot," Hiei concluded, "but she's an idiot working for Raizen so that means she's a powerful idiot that much closer to getting what she wants."

"And that is?" Kurama asked.

Hiei narrowed his gaze, "She wants to be Queen of the Makai."

* * *

_I think I might've known you—once upon a time._

_You were a thief, and I was a fool. And after all this time, I still can't seem to shake your name. Maybe it was the benefit of your rank, or maybe it was the legacy you left behind when you departed the Makai._

_Sublimity of power was your only truth. The more you had, the more you wanted._

_The noble road to getting power was paved with death and sacrifice. But shortcuts and scheming were, after all, your forte, so you understood that wealth would be the quickest and easiest way to achieve it. _

_Maybe, and in the end, it's probably my fault for not seeing this sooner—when you think you have almost everything you need, you have a tendency to take a little bit more_.

_Your real truth lied in darkness and despair; and you couldn't have truly known. You were wise and understood many things, but you didn't understand yourself._

_And to be honest, you wouldn't have known back then either when you were in the Makai—and, really—there were only so many times you could chase your stars before they collapsed inside you and bled you out._

_But the truth is, although I've never met you, I know you're alive. _Yoko is here, they'll cry.

_And after all this time, I never stopped searching for you_.


	2. A Rhapsody in Blue

**note**: I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors I made :( I did not go through this chapter thoroughly. Thanks for the reviews on the first chapter ^_^ I really appreciated it.

* * *

_Chapter 2_:  
A Rhapsody in Blue

* * *

Kurama discovered the onbi plant on the outskirts of the city within Yomi's territory.

It wasn't a particularly powerful plant. Its powers were fleeting; it latched to its victims and sapped them slowly of their energy before detaching and withering away. Kurama wasn't able to digest the energy it absorbed, and the plant, more often than not, died immediately after its purpose was served.

Some onbi plants attached to the ground and lived for a short time before meeting its ultimate demise. Had it not been for the gradient of vivid blues, the softness of its petals attached to a furry stem, he surely would've considered the plant worthless.

But once in a while, and he didn't like to admit it aloud, he let his superficial tendencies take over.

The onbi reminded him of Maya.

They first met in middle school, and Kurama was fairly aware of her harmless crush on him. She was pretty enough to catch his eye, but her physical features alone didn't stand in the way of her more prominent attitude. She was outspoken, and she wasn't afraid to speak out against the boys in class who teased Kurama about his feminine features.

She was defensive of him, but he couldn't really understand why. He didn't particularly care about the comments of the children in his class; in his three thousand years, he'd heard much worse and he had taken far graver offenses.

One day, she finally confessed her feelings for him. She admitted she loved him. But what did twelve-year olds understand about love anyway?

A crush was only a crush, in the grand scheme of things. But Kurama supposed just because she was too young to understand love didn't mean she couldn't feel it at some level.

It was a shame her own spiritual awareness and curiosity would become her own undoing. When she was kidnapped by Yatsude, Kurama had to save her. Old and jaded as he was, he couldn't quite distinguish the difference between his feelings of compassion and his obligatory feelings of justice served.

He supposed it hardly mattered in the end. Maya was saved, she would learn to forget the horrors that almost befell her, and she would go on to live a normal, average life.

The kind of life that Kurama could never have.

After she lost her memory, she would look at him in class and there would be this look in her eye of perpetual nostalgia, like she was trying to remember something deep inside herself. But it would always be fleeting, and the looks she gave him became less and less frequent as time went on.

She ceased speaking to him, and she ceased flirting with him on a daily basis, but when the boys in class teased Kurama about his feminine features, she would snap at them to shut their mouths. He could erase her memories but he couldn't erase her habitual instincts.

There were some things that just wouldn't change despite his best intentions.

He wondered if he could've fallen for her. At some point, he had to admit that she was the girl he could've loved if he were only human.

He squeezed the stem of the onbi between his thumb and index finger and let it settle into his right pocket.

Kurama wasn't human, and he never would be.

He just wished he could accept this inevitable certainty.

* * *

Hiei breathed deeply, feeling the skin on his knuckles stretch taut as he tightened his grip around the hilt of his katana.

He watched Kira from a distance, and she gazed back at him with mild irritation. Her arms were at her side and she stood motionless, only the soft wind lifting slightly the black flaps of her qi pao dress.

There was a cut on her cheek and a single drop of blood slid down her skin, touching her chin. But she didn't seem to mind the wound too much.

Hiei was sure she'd seen uglier wounds in far uglier places. A simple cut to her cheek would merely ruin her complexion but something told him she wasn't the kind of girl who cared about something so trivial.

"I need your help," she said, "I'm not here to fight you."

The corner of Hiei's lips lifted into a faint smirk.

He'd heard all sorts of stories about this girl, and he even met her once before, right after he had the Jagan eye implanted. The two of them had an unsettled debt, and Hiei had sworn to kill her someday when he was stronger.

He might've been feeding his own ego at this point. He knew he wasn't strong enough to take her alone right now, but if she needed his help, that meant she couldn't kill him.

With that little bit of mental leverage noted, he charged forward—and vanished suddenly before he could touch her with the sharp edge of his katana.

Kira hesitated for a fleeting moment but didn't shift her gaze from the specific area Hiei had been standing in only seconds go.

She could sense his very apparent presence in the tree behind her, probably crouched down, with his katana pointed in the general direction of her neck.

There was a strong killer's intent radiating off him that she couldn't miss if she wanted to but Kira supposed it was nothing too personal—that his apathy for the living must've been something just inherently buried inside himself.

She noted that Hiei was skilled and was good at hiding his demon energy, but there were just things that he couldn't hide despite his best efforts.

"I need to find the baku jewels," she stated in the open, "they're in Yomi's territory hidden away in a river somewhere. I've been searching but—it's embarrassing because it's taken me a while to realize—I need your Jagan eye. There are hundreds of rivers. It must be in one of them and I don't have time to go on a blind mission."

The baku jewels were nestled away because, once upon a time, Raizen believed it would be a good idea to spread his wealth across the land.

In some ways, it was pretty clever before the era of the Three Kings.

But when the territories were consolidated, he had to rush to gather whatever wealth he could before returning to his own terrain.

That meant there were jewels hidden away that managed to elude him and when Kira searched through the inventory he had listed in the dungeons of his castle, she knew she had to get them back before someone else discovered them. It was a matter of greed, she supposed.

She could feel Hiei bristle and shift in the tree.

She turned around as he leapt forward and grabbed the blade of his katana in between her two fingers.

He narrowed his gaze into the form of a glare, trying to force the katana down between the wedge of her index and middle finger.

But she didn't struggle too much, and she used the leverage of her wrist to prevent the blade from slipping down too far. Hiei was powerful, but brutal strength wasn't particularly his forte and she knew that his power lied in agility and quickness.

He could jump around all he wanted but in this moment, he wasn't powerful enough to defeat her with brute strength alone.

Kira knew he would surpass her easily in a few years if he continued working for Mukuro but right now she had the upper hand.

He was all reckless abandon and apathy; she could see it in the way he fought.

Kira supposed, in the end, that was the pointlessness of his nature. He had too much pride and not enough foresight. For such a renowned psychic in the Makai, it was rather ironic.

It also seemed Hiei desired something a little more than power. He must've been strong at some point (it could only explain the ego thing he had going on).

Since then, he'd most likely lost it, depraved and weak. He edged so closely to desperation she could almost taste it. Kira met many demons like him working under similar faculties. But they lacked the same resolve that Hiei had.

She supposed it was only a matter of time before they met again. She could only wish it were under different circumstances. There was part of her that wished for a good spar, but she was in a rush and he was wasting her time.

"I know we made a promise to fight if we were in a situation like this," she said, "but right now, I need your help."

Hiei scoffed, "And why should I help you?"

He lifted the blade and made a quick swipe at her; but underhand, he raised a fist and jabbed closely to her chest—only to have her grab both his hands, the katana slipping from his hand and hitting the ground.

Hiei stared into her eyes, black as black. She didn't move, only gave him a stern look like she wasn't amused by their dead end conversation.

"I don't a lot to offer you," she said with a half smile, "I don't have money, and I don't have the kind of power you're looking for. But I could help you hunt down what you're looking for. I could use all the resources at my disposal."

He paused, "_Tch_. Your resources? Are you talking about word of mouth, run-of-the-mill rumors? That's insulting. It makes me want to rip the lungs right out of your chest."

"Big words for such a weak apparition," she retorted without missing a beat, lifting his entire body up slightly before slamming him into the ground, a massive dent forming underneath them.

She crouched down on one knee, overlooking him, "I know you must be looking for _something_. Don't tell me power is your sole ambition."

Her offer was vague enough to hit home.

Hiei thought about the jewel from his mother he'd lost so long ago. He'd been searching for it ever since; in fact, he'd implanted the Jagan eye for that very purpose. That and Yukina.

Kira sat down on the floor of the forest cross-legged as Hiei pushed himself up from the dent in the ground on all floors. She smiled softly at him while he shot her a glare.

The truth is, he could threaten her however he wanted to and she wouldn't care, too self-absorbed in her own goals. She never took anything too personally. And it was insulting that she thought he couldn't manage to find his mother's jewel on his own.

Hiei wasn't particularly fond of this girl.

"In a few years, you'll be stronger than me—but until then don't doubt my ability to destroy the nerves in your legs. I'd make sure you wouldn't be able to walk again. And you don't seem like the type of apparition who really gives a shit about death, so let me make it a little more clear. I would never kill you—only make sure that you live with no ability to ever stand again," she said, "that is, if you don't help me."

So she was trying to threaten him now.

Hiei shot a glare but let out a small _hn_ of acknowledgment. He couldn't say he was truly angry, and he couldn't say that his pride or ego was hurt—not as much as when she offered to help him find his mother's jewel.

The truth is, he was amused more than anything. For a girl who masqueraded around with such a fake innocent façade, she really knew where to throw the right punches.

She was right in almost every way. Hiei wasn't the kind of demon who feared death. He feared being useless; he feared having no purpose.

"Your threats don't scare me," he rebuffed, "idiot."

He couldn't tell if she was bluffing. But if she were anything like the girl he met so long ago, then she probably wasn't. Still, he wasn't afraid of her.

"Answer me something first," Hiei stated.

She arched a brow, "What is it?"

He paused for a moment before continuing, "Why do you choose to masquerade as a demon when it's clear you're a human?"

Kira was reticent and she wrinkled her nose in disgust, as if she'd just tasted something disgusting in her mouth. It was almost a comical look.

"I couldn't tell at first with your demon energy. But there's no mistaking the beat inside your chest—it's a human heart," he stated impassively, "you can try to hide your human stench but you can't hide your own biological body."

She watched him, her initially soft smile disappearing from her mouth into a grimace, "Well. Can't say I didn't have this coming. I'll give you that. But it's fine—I'm not offended. I guess," and she shifted her feet slightly, feeling a prickling sensation in her toes, "I can only say it's a matter of convenience."

"Convenience?" He echoed, "You must be joking."

Kira shrugged, "Sorry if you expected something more." She wasn't lying, but she wasn't being completely truthful.

They were at a standstill and Hiei decided to continue, completely unaware of the boundaries that he was pushing, "Then answer me something else," and there was a pause before he asked, "since you're a human, who exactly was stupid enough to give you the demon energy sitting inside you?"

Kira wasn't particularly fazed.

She knew Hiei had a tendency to overstep his boundaries. And it was only a natural question for him to consider, now that he understood the truth inside her.

There weren't many who understood her human nature. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her human background. At this point, it was a force of habit. Kira could've killed him right now for the sake of her own self-preservation but she needed him—and if she decided to kill him on a whim, then she wouldn't be able to use his Jagan eye.

Besides, they had some kind of history.

They met long ago—when he was far weaker than he was now. She had an inherent curiosity about the Jagan eye implanted inside his head. Kira was young and she had a tendency to let her inquisitiveness overpower her intuition.

While he stayed quiet, she continued to pester him about the eye. So Hiei decided to depart the general vicinity, not without letting her know that she was a nuisance and that when they met again, he would shut her up. He wasn't afraid of her so much as he was irritated by her big mouth.

At the time, he was a D-class demon and she was somewhere in the B-class range. She supposed with some twisted kind of logic, they were almost in the realm of being friends.

Kira took a deep breath, and when the silence stretched too thin, she finally opened her mouth to say, "I already answered your first question. Don't you know when enough is enough?"

"No," he didn't even miss a beat.

She pursed her lips, "…you didn't have many friends growing up, did you?"

Hiei flinched.

Kira was hitting too close to home. He wasn't particularly offended because what she said was pretty much true. After all, he was abandoned as a baby, before he was accepted into a group of bandits, only to be abandoned once again.

It seemed all he understood was the perils of living in solitude. And just as he was about to open his mouth to retort something like _I don't need friends_ or _why don't you watch your human mouth_, this look of understanding and realization dawned on Kira's face.

Like something was clicking inside her head.

"I didn't have many friends either, to be fair," she said, laughing sheepishly, "I—uh—actually got the crap beaten out of me as a kid. I didn't really understand how to socialize with a bunch of demons. Granted I was somewhat of a teacher's pet. But it made me realize it didn't matter and that I shouldn't try so hard to please them. All I needed was my little family of monks. And that's all that really matters to me now."

Hiei hated talks like this. He pressed his head into the ground and prayed that she would shut up.

"And also those kids killed my turtledove. Which just. You know—" Kira pursed her lips, "That was really messed up. It was a perfectly innocent little thing. And they weren't even sorry about it—"

Correction. Hiei absolutely _despised_ talks like this.

"—anyway," she continued, "things are exceptionally better now. Ever since then, the monks and I have—"

"If I tell you where the jewels are, will you cease your pointless drivel," Hiei's question was more a statement and he didn't even bother to hide the very apparent irritation in his tone.

Kira smiled. For some people, things just didn't change.

* * *

"There seems to be some movement on the eastern edge of the border," Yomi stated dispassionately, "how strange. Raizen's errand girl is heading to the Fenzhōu River. She seems to be alone."

Kurama raised in his head slightly. He was compelled to reply but tried not to answer too quickly. He wasn't completely sure where he stood with Kira, and any knowledge he did divulge would be useless to Yomi. He had to tread more carefully.

"What business she has with that dump is beyond me," Yomi continued, "the river has been contaminated with garbage for years."

Yomi was right. The Fenzhōu River had been polluted since Yoko was alive and well. Only the filthiest demons chose to dwell there. Even from a mile away, the putrid stench was able to overcome any passerby. Kurama hadn't visited the river for a long time, and with good reason too.

It was ransacked with trash and the color of the water had turned a putrid shade of purple, almost poisonous. Some parts of the river were so caked on with sludge it was impossible to move through.

"I'll need you to look in on it," Yomi stated, "I would send Shachi but I'd need someone more …reasonable."

"I see," Kurama said, "anything in particular you need to know?"

"Find her intentions. Try to avoid physical conflict if you can," he said, "she has a tendency to flee if she's in a rush. She's moving at quite a pace so I'll need you to leave immediately."

"Understood."

"And before you leave," Yomi said, "make her divulge her allegience. Raizen won't last much longer and I'd like to know if her loyalties lie the same. Trying times, after all, my friend."

Kurama felt the onbi in the pocket of his jacket. It would take him a few hours of walking to trek to the river. She would probably get there in half the time if she were already by the eastern border.

If he wanted to make up the pace, he would have to run the whole way there. A small smile formed on his lips and he wondered what exactly she was looking for in a place as rotten as the Fenzhōu River.

_"From what I can feel, you must be really lonely, huh?"_


	3. Closer to You

_Chapter 3_:  
Closer to You

* * *

"_Oh_…come on."

Kira couldn't believe her own luck, hiding up in a tree a distance away from the Fenzhōu River.

Despite trekking miles and miles for the past few days, and despite being stranded in a remote location next to a rotting lake, and despite knowing the precise location of the baku jewels, someone had somehow arrived before her.

And this particular someone turned out to be a blue-haired, steely-eyed ice apparition who went by the name of _Touya_, who operated under the code of the Shinobi. He was famous after Team Masho lost in the Dark Tournament and his name spread across the Makai like wildfire.

Kira couldn't possibly fathom how he managed to find the jewels before her.

Something pointed her towards a particular temperamental psychic apparition she had fought only a few days earlier. Kira made a mental note to find Hiei sometime in the future and beat him over the head until he had an aneurysm.

Touya was knee deep in dark purple sludge. The Fenzhōu River's reputation had a tendency to precede it. It was dark, polluted and broken beyond repair.

Only the basest demons chose to reside by its banks; anything that touched the sludge would evaporate into a thin dust of purple haze. Kira took a moment before she realized that Touya was buffering his entrance into the river with a wall of ice surrounding his legs, along with cold wind that shifted in a semi-circular motion, moving the sludge away from the walls around his legs.

In his hands were the baku jewels—all three of them, black as black. He had dug them up from the spacious piece of open ground below him created by the power of his icy winds.

The black sludge surrounded him in a small semi-circular wall. But no matter. In the end, this just meant Kira wouldn't have to get her hands dirty, so to speak. He had retrieved the jewels, done the dirty work, and all she had to do was take the jewels away from him.

With her mind made up, she rushed forward just as Touya made his way to the bank.

Only to be caught by a very familiar redhead.

Never mind the fact that she hardly sensed Kurama in the vicinity—but here he was, his arm wrapped around her arm. Kira could only manage to arch her brow in mild confusion while she whipped her arm away from his grasp, doing an effortless little backflip, landing away from the bank.

"Kurama!" Touya seemed rather shocked, completely unaware that Kira had followed him.

The fox stood in between them and watched Kira carefully with narrowed eyes.

Kira noted that today his energy felt different, resembling a stronger Yoko rather than his normal human aura.

Kurama noted something similar within Kira—no longer did she carry the carefree aura that radiated off her in the forest during their first exchange. Rather, he could practically sniff out her killer's intent.

Kira only stared back at him, unmoving and stolid. Kurama could tell she had a mission to complete; and something told him it had to do with the black jewels Touya was holding.

He eyed these jewels carefully. The _baku_ jewels. They were lost long ago, and there were rumors and speculation that Raizen had buried these treasures across the nation prior to the consolidation of the three kingdoms. Now that the jewels were in Yomi's territory, they technically belonged to him.

But Kira was breaching this law. Kurama supposed in the grand scheme of things, the territories were only suggestive barriers to keep the three kings away from one another. In the end, they were all on a brink of war and there was only so much anyone could do to uphold the laws across the territories.

"Who told you about the jewels?" Kurama snapped, shooting Touya a stern look.

"It was Hiei," Kira intercepted before Touya could even manage a response.

His silence confirmed her suspicions and she frowned.

Kurama knew Kira could easily discard Touya in battle, since he was merely an A-class demon at this point. They would have to plan wisely; to fight her, they would have to buy their time a little more before doing anything too drastic.

Although he was conflicted about his relationship with Yomi, there were still responsibilities he owed him if he wanted to earn the place of right hand. He needed Yomi to trust him so if that meant taking the jewels—which was quite petty—Kurama noted he would do it without missing a beat.

He had borrowed Yoko's power before to stop her from attacking Touya. If he hadn't, she surely would've killed the ice apparition without missing a beat.

But suddenly, Kira slammed her hand into the ground, a crack forming under her fist before a geiser of purple sludge poured into the air like a mushroom cloud.

She vanished almost immediately.

Frantically, Kurama whipped his head around attempting to avoid the giant drops of purple sludge that rained from above. Touya was nowhere to be seen.

Once he ran into open space, he watched in mortification as a familiar steely-eyed ice apparition flew over the main body of the Fenzhōu River, completely unconscious.

Kurama barely managed to push him to the other side of the bank before feeling the stink of the purple haze pervade his sensitive fox nose. With a quick snap of his fingers, Touya was safe in a tree—and Kurama was already on his feet running.

He had to catch Kira.

* * *

Again, she couldn't believe her luck.

Yomi was on her tail.

From what she could surmise, he had another S-class demon following him. A right hand—probably Shachi.

Yomi didn't have many warriors under his belt who were stronger than an A-class. After all, that was Mukuro's strong suit. Either way, she was being pursued and the familiarity of Yomi's aura made her feel nauseous.

She could take Shachi, Yomi's red-skinned fish-eared right hand and maybe manage a win. Technically, they were evenly matched according to their class rank; but Yomi was a different story.

He could kill her without batting an eye.

There had to be some way out.

The thought of entering Mukuro's territory crossed her mind temporarily since it was the closer alternative to Raizen's territory. But she knew there was a familiar psychic apparition still reeling from the last time they fought. Kira still had a bone to pick with him but knowing Hiei's temperament, she couldn't afford to get sidetracked or slowed down and if he attempted to challenge her, she knew she wouldn't have a choice with his stubbornness and speed.

Because of his Jagan eye, he probably knew exactly where she was at the moment. Mukuro's territory was out of question, to say the least.

She couldn't keep running forever.

At some point, she would have to stop. Her stamina could only push so far against someone like Yomi's. But this also reminded her that the blind demon couldn't last forever either.

If she wanted to stand a chance against him, she would have to surprise attack him—maybe take out Shachi first. She had to use her unpredictability to her own advantage.

She'd met the red-finned demon once upon a time and their meeting had been a passive aggressive attempt at diplomacy. Shachi wasn't fond of her young, beaming ego and she wasn't found of his brutish hypocrisies.

With these plans perusing through her mind, Kira balked and felt an immediate dread fill her stomach when Yomi manifested in front of her with a half smile on his face.

"So we meet again, Kira."

* * *

Kurama raided the forest.

Yomi was after her. He sensed him and Shachi on the way, and Kurama had attempted to mask his presence behind a group of migrating C-class stork apparitions heading south.

It had worked, not because he was trying to be clever or anything, but because Yomi seemed desperate to see Kira again. Once in a while, Kurama caught a glimpse of Kira's energy looping and fading but at some point it all melded together with Shachi and Yomi and he knew that she was in bad shape.

She was mid-S-class demon taking on a king and his right hand man. Shachi might've been a different story but she couldn't take Yomi on her own.

But it occurred to Kurama that Yomi still didn't trust him. At this point, he had gone on his own to find what was happening with Kira, the messenger girl. Although he had sent Kurama, he still took his own initiative.

At some point, Yomi had passed him and this is when he departed from the stork apparitions and made his own pace towards Kira's weaning energy.

It didn't take Kurama very long to discover a very familiar messenger girl hunched over a rock near the arching border between Yomi's and Raizen's territories.

It was hard to miss because of the statues of both men on either side of the border, indicating the end of the two meeting places.

He noticed the state of Kira's body.

She was a wreck. Battered bruises littered her body and she had deep, _gaping_ wounds in all the wrong places—near the jugular of her neck, by the femoral artery in her leg. All deadly, _ugly_ wounds that could leave her dead in a matter of minutes.

If she weren't more careful, she would've already been dead.

"Are you going to kill me?" She asked with silent resolve, eyes glazing over the statues with a hint of amusement in her dull, black eyes.

Kurama was quiet for a moment before he replied, "No."

Kira pressed the side of her face against the statue of Raizen, "Yomi took the baku jewels," and when she removed her hand from her abdomen, Kurama noticed a gaping hole where her stomach should've been.

She had tried to swallow the jewels—and they were ripped out from her insides.

Even with Yomi's questioning of her loyalties a couple days back, it was obvious where her resolve was. She would be Raizen's messenger girl until the day she died.

It was admirable in some kind of sick, twisted way and Kurama considered her almost noble, considering the fact that he was nothing like her in his old days. Wherever the situation called for an advantage, he would take it.

Things were different now, but for a girl who was so young, it was somewhat beautiful to see her allegiances rigid and unchanging.

"Would you have killed me for the jewels?" She asked.

Kurama paused a moment, noting the small gaping hole on the side of her collarbone, blood pouring from it like a small torrent with each pulse, "Yes."

Kira smiled weakly and brushed her hair back with her free hand, leaving a streak of blood over her forehead, "That's reassuring, I guess. At least you wouldn't have left me here to get killed by a D-class demon—at least that's what I think Yomi was planning. This is pretty humiliating, I have to say."

He took a moment before he kneeled down, "You won't die." It was human habit, he supposed.

A slight look of disbelief formed on her face, "Yomi left here to humiliate me. You know that better than anyone else. He's careful, but he isn't above something petty like this. He might be noble when it matters, but he likes his mind games too."

Kira had a point and she was pretty astute when it came to understanding somebody's internal character. Although Yomi had to uphold a certain demeanor of honor and nobility, he wasn't above something pointless like torturing someone for years and years.

Kurama saw this first hand a month back with the assassin. This was a trait that was prevalent when Yomi was young and sighted—even though he was taught his lesson, he still had that same trait and Kurama supposed some habits just never died.

"I don't mind if I died by your hands," Kira finally said with a forced grin, "it would be pretty cool to die at the hand of Yoko," and she stared up at him wistfully with a forced smile, "maybe then they'll remember my name."

From his pocket, Kurama took out the makou plant, an energy-absorbing plant. He placed it underneath his own tongue.

"What're you doing?" She barely managed to make out without losing her breath.

"It'll help you," Kurama explained. He didn't elaborate too much.

Kira seemed to understand but there was a look of confusion written all over her face, "Why are you helping me?"

The plant took root and Kurama kneeled down next to her, putting his hand over her open wound by her stomach. He forced a small smile for the sake of keeping her hopes up, "I don't think you've done anything wrong. And if Yomi kept you alive, then I suppose he wanted it that way."

"What a joke," Kira laughed slightly; but before she could say anything more, she lost consciousness and her body hunched over his hand.

* * *

Kurama laid her carefully on the ground, his hand still over the bloody wound over her stomach. A small green glow appeared underneath his palm.

When her stomach was slightly healed, Kurama opened his mouth and pressed his mouth to the giant cut near her femoral artery—then to her thigh.

It was a rather precarious position but there was no sentimentality or intimacy between them, especially with Kira's consciousness gone.

It was the easiest way to transfer the bud of energy underneath his tongue from the makou plant to her body. Normally, situations never called for this drastic of a decision, especially since life energy replenished at an abysmally slow rate. But if Kira had any hope of living, then Kurama would have to make this sacrifice.

He wouldn't truly explain what he was helping her. In his mind, he realized that he was saving the girl he would've killed only an hour ago.

But with the jewels out of the picture, he wasn't above attempting to at least be a bit compassionate to someone who needed his help. Her intentions were noble and what she attempted was simply out of her allegiance to Raizen.

Even Kurama had his morals when it came to these kinds of things.

Somewhere deep inside, Yoko stirred.

He moved his lips and pressed his mouth to the cut in her neck close to her jugular.

He was shocked she hadn't bled out immediately but it must've been a combination of Yomi's attempting to humiliate her and Kira's attempt to avoid the deeper wounds he provided. Had he been a minute or two later, she surely would've been murdered by some wandering D-class demon.

But something really piqued his interest as he moved his mouth away while the wound closed over her neck.

Her blood tasted human.

* * *

When Kira awakened hours later, she found Kurama staring at her with a look of perplexity written all his face.

She felt replenished, she felt _full_. And when she took a quick glance down her body, she noticed most of her deep wounds had faded—at least enough to stop the bleeding, saving for the gash by her collarbone. But she knew why Kurama stayed away from that area.

It was generally a place where demons sank their teeth to mark their mate. Once the skin was pierced in battle, it had to heal naturally. If Kurama's energy entered the wound, he might've accidentally marked her.

Besides, it wasn't a wound that required immediate treatment.

He was sitting down with his head leaning against the trunk of the tree, "You're a human."

Kira blinked. Twice.

"Um. How'd you know?"

He had to chuckle slightly at her expression.

Had she kept her mouth shut and denied the fact that she was human, he might've believed her for a moment. But he had to press on regardless now that his curiosity was piqued, "Your blood."

He decided to leave it there and avoid the part where he ran his mouth over her body in a completely, non-romantic non-ravishing, non-intimate way. He had a feeling she might've taken it differently, now that he knew she was human.

Kira seemed to get the hint, "That doesn't change anything."

"You're right, I suppose," Kurama had to admit aloud, "but it doesn't explain your demon energy. Unless you're also a descendant of a demon ancestor. But somehow I don't think that's the case. You seem rather fragile."

He hit the nail on the head.

Kira sat up a little straighter and felt a strong strain in her lower side from where the wound was still healing over her stomach. Although she felt much better, her recovery speed was far slower than the average demon mostly because of her human ancestry.

Kurama was right in almost every way. Not only was he smart, but he was intuitive. Kira didn't descend from demons. She was 100% human. She had to give him some credit for deducing that so quickly from such little information.

Normally, she would've kept her mouth shut and made a run for it but she wasn't strong enough to get too far and because they were technically on the border within Yomi's territory, she had to tread carefully.

But most of all, she owed him some kind of debt. She knew the kind of healing he did wasn't traditionally herbal; otherwise, she'd be dead because it'd take too long.

He had probably given her his life energy. He sacrificed a part of himself to save her. And although she had to ponder the reason behind that at some point, she let the optimistic part of her peg him as genuinely good.

"I fell into the Makai long ago," she admitted finally, "as you're aware, it happens quite frequently. Normally, humans are eaten immediately."

Kira closed her eyes while Kurama listened intently.

"I found Raizen first," she said, "by this time, he had already been fasting for a long time."

"He spared your life?" Kurama asked.

"Not quite. Like I said earlier, _I_ found him first," Kira stated with this perpetual look of a dreamer, "he was badly injured. But as badly injured as Raizen could get, you know? He was just lying face down on the ground. No one was approaching him, well, because it's _Raizen_. At the time, I thought he was going to die. I could hear his stomach grumbling so loud—it took me a while to realize his injury was from his starvation and not from a physical wound. Anyway, I was young and stupid."

A pause.

"So I looked around and picked a few berries and tried to bring it to him this…little dress I was wearing. I got to him the first time and gave him the berries but he seemed really hungry so I went back to get him some more," she said, "but I wasn't so luck the second time and I was attacked on the way by a D-class demon. I tried to run but I didn't get very far before I fell and the berries rolled on the ground."

Kurama watched her eyes, black as black—no color in the iris, just full of darkness and despair. For a girl who masqueraded with this big smile on her face, he could tell she was wounded and lonely.

Just like him. She _knew_. She _understood_.

In some kind of twisted fate, she had the complete inverse of his situation. He was the one pretending to be a human in the Ningenkai while she was walking around, pretending to be a demon in the Makai.

"Raizen saved me," she finished, "and I guess the rest is history."

"What advantage would he have with a human?" Kurama asked.

Kira shrugged, "He told me later on that my eyes were familiar. That I resembled someone he knew a long, _long_ time ago—way before I was even born. I suppose, in that way, it's fate isn't it? But he knows I'm not her. He told me a while ago I couldn't possibly be her reincarnate because I didn't have her temperamental attitude and stubbornness. I think the old man was in love with her. He's never told me but I can kind of tell from the way he acts. He's been in love with her for a long time. She's gone, obviously but I let him dream anyway."

Kurama let this settle for a moment. She didn't really have to tell him but he guessed. Raizen had fallen for the little bit of human compassion she had. It was rare to find such kindness in the Makai.

"Presumably, he gave you some of his own demon energy," Kurama said.

Kira paused a moment before forcing a smile, "You're intuitive, aren't you?"

No wonder she had such raw power.

Even if Raizen gave her a small portion of his own demon energy in his prime, she could match Mukuro and Yomi in power. But he was already fasting and he was already slightly weaker, so Kira couldn't take advantage of his _true_ power.

She would have to find that within herself at some point. Living amongst the greatest fighter of all time meant that she must've had a few tricks up her sleeve. Kurama supposed, in this aspect, that was why she was faithful to his regime—that was why she remained a loyal errand girl despite all the rumors of her wanting to be Queen of the Makai.

Maybe she did have selfish ambitions for power, but at least they were born from a place of honesty.

Kira stood slowly, hands hovering over the strain in her stomach where the hole had been earlier, "I want to hear your story too. Someday—when I earn it," she shot him a true, genuine smile, "I get the feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of each other."

With that, she vanished.

* * *

"Don't let your fondness of humans cloud your judgment," Hiei snapped with his arms crossed over his chest.

It was true. Kurama had a soft spot for humans.

There was something instinctively strange about their ability to love and love without obligation or reason—to love without remorse or commitment.

That was the biggest difference between humans and demons. While demons had to reason and use logic to assess the advantage of marking someone, humans loved with infinite aptitude without reason.

He though about the little redhead in the forest carrying a batch of berries around in her raggity dress.

Hiei was jaded and for good reason. While Kurama was taught love, Hiei had no capacity to love because he was never truly loved by anyone.

Kurama supposed that this is what truly separated them.


End file.
